Late surge lifts Moose volleyball over SoHi

PALMER — Just as it seemed like everything had fallen apart for the Palmer Moose, a sudden shift in momentum pushed Palmer to victory.

Palmer rallied from a five-point deficit midway through the decisive fifth game to secure a 3-2 (25-21, 23-25, 25-18, 23-25, 15-13) win over the Soldotna Stars Saturday afternoon at Palmer High School.

“To mentally stick with it, and come out on the other end, it’s a good win,” Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds said of the Moose rally to victory.

Soldotna which came from behind in the fourth set to force a Game 5 jumped to a quick lead in the fourth set. The Stars extended that lead to 7-2. But before Soldotna could completely clamp down on the victory, Palmer started to steadily creep back.

Senior Leiah Reichel knocked down a kill to start a streak of three straight points for the Moose. She used her second kill of the set to cut Palmer’s deficit to three points.

Later in Game 5, senior Mariah McNamara registered consecutive kills to cut Soldotna’s lead to 10-9. A SoHi net violation tied the game at 10.

“We had the same problems in the second game, tons of unforced errors,” Reynolds said of falling behind early in Game 5. “We’ve had bouts of that. (I give them) good credit for being persistent, percerviering through the ups and downs, because we certainly had our bad spells.”

McNamara led the Moose with 19 kills. Reichel added 12 kills and five blocks. Carly Venzke chipped in 13 digs and four aces.

Palmer improved to 5-1 in NLC play with the victory. It’s only loss came against Soldotna, a 3-1 defeat at Soldotna earlier this year.

Bailey Rosin finished with a match-high 23 digs. Rosin also collected five kills in the loss. Skyler Shaw added 20 digs and eight kills. Hayley Ramsell recorded 10 kills and five blocks. Haley Miller finished with 5 kills and four blocks. Mckenna Rosin added 8 kills and two blocks. Alex Ashe recorded a match-high 28 assists.